Games like the one we saw at the RBC Center haven't happened much this year. Not only did we witness Cam Ward's second shutout of the season, but we also got to see the Canes put together one of their best team efforts in a 3-0 win over the Washington Capitals. It was their first regulation win against the Caps in over two years, so I'm sure this was a big monkey off their backs. This was also the first time in awhile that the Canes completely dominated their opponent in all three zones which is something I hope to see more of the next couple of months. It doesn't matter whether you go by the final score, shots (33-22) or scoring chances (21-10), everything was heavily tilted in Carolina's favor while nothing seemed to go right for the Caps.

I must say, it is really nice to be on the winning side of one of these games for a change.

Scoring chances & more after the jump

The main thing I talked about in the preview was how Cam Ward is showing signs of his usual self and that the Canes should see more wins as a result even if they continue to be outshot night in and night out. Tonight's game seemed to fit that prediction well as the Canes were outshot 37-22 at even strength and outchanced 20-13, but were able to pick up a point in a 2-1 shootout loss to the Penguins thanks to a marvelous 40 save performance by Ward. He may have actually needed to do more if it wasn't for the 24 blocked shots and 21 misses. It is safe to say that the Pens controlled this game after the first period but it was good to see the Canes steal a point and continue to work their way out of the cellar.

However, the result of the game isn't terribly important to Canes fans at the moment as we are all wondering about the status of Jeff Skinner, who took a huge hit in the neutral zone from Brooks Orpik and had to leave the game with what looked like another head injury. He returned later in the third period but he could have suffered another concussion for all we know since he was clearly woozy after taking that hit. One would hope that the team doctors wouldn't let him back into the game if he had a head injury so we are all hoping for the best right now.

Scoring chances & more after the jump

Tonight's dramatic 3-2 win over the Bruins reminded me a lot of some games that the Hurricanes would win last season. They had a lot of trouble creating offense and were kept in their own zone for most of the game but what kept them in it was the great play of Cam Ward. He stopped 33 of 35 shots, 21 of which came from a dangerous scoring area and looked a lot more like the goalie we had hoped to see for most of the year. That isn't to say that he was the only reason the Canes won this game because there are few other things you could point at. All three of Carolina's goals happened because forwards were able to get in front of Tim Thomas and create traffic. A couple of timely turnovers (see Brandon Sutter on Dwyer's goal) and instances of the Canes winning battles along the boards (Brent vs. Corvo on Faulk's goal) also helped but for the most part, it was Ward who kept the game in reach. Getting outshot 33-21 at even strength isn't going to win you a ton of games, so let's enjoy this win but not get used to it. Hey, whatever makes us 3-0 against the defending champs is fine in my book.

In what has been a mainly forgettable year for the Hurricanes, yesterday's 5-2 win over the Lightning was a nice change of pace. They built on an early lead, chased a goalie killed penalties and got a dominant effort from their first line. Tuomo Ruutu said during the intermission that they played their best first period all season and it's hard to argue that since they scored four goals, which I am pretty sure hasn't happened this year. The whole game was one of the Canes strongest efforts all season and it was great to see them get rewarded with a win, their first W to be decided by more than two goals all season. Like I said, it was a refreshing change of pace and hopefully we'll have more decisive wins like this in the next few months.

Scoring chances & more after the jump

Last night's 2-1 loss to the Flyers had a lot of positives that Carolina could take home and a game where they could have earned at least a point but things didn't quite work out that way. I know a lot of recaps will say that Flyers netminder Sergei Bobrovsky stole this game for them and while it might look that way on paper, the Flyers defense put forth a strong defensive effort. They kept most of the Hurricanes 36 shots on goal to the outside and did a very good job at protecting the area in front of the net. The Canes may have barely outshot the Flyers, but they trailed in scoring chances 13-11 at even strength and most of their scoring chances came in short rushes. Carolina definitely had the puck in the Philly zone a lot of times, they just didn't do much with it after that. 

Like I said, there are a lot of good things you can say about how the Canes played tonight despite the loss. Jerome Samson had a terrific game in his season debut, Justin Faulk had a relatively good game and we saw the reunited Bryan Allen/Tim Gleason defense pairing shutdown the Flyers top line. The Canes had the advantage when it came to territorial play but not scoring chances and that was one of the reasons why they lost this game. Maybe this is proof of shot quality?

Scoring chances & more after the jump

The Hurricanes 4-2 win over the Sabers featured a lot of back and-forth action, great goaltending and some pretty spotty defensive play. Put all of that together and you got yourself a pretty exciting hockey game. The Canes had one of their sloppier performances of the year but good special teams, goaltending and a couple of mistakes on Buffalo's end is what helped Carolina win this game. This isn't the type of game I would like to see every night but the Canes managed to come away with the two points and that's what matters the most here.

Scoring chances & more after the jump

One of the biggest problem with the Hurricanes under Kirk Muller (among many other things) is that most of their wins have come by only one goal or have been decided in overtime. This is a bad thing because one-goal and overtime wins are more of an indication of luck than team skill and will likely not sustain in the long-run. Three of Carolina's last four wins have been by one goal and two of them were in overtime and they had a chance to win another last night against the Islanders but instead, they lost 4-3 in the shootout. The Canes have been poor in OT and the shootout this year (3-7), so you could also make the argument that they haven't been getting lucky in close games which is completely accurate but that's just how luck works. It would be a lot better if the Canes could learn to finish their opponents early in games so they won't be decided by luck-driven factors like overtime and the shootout. They had a couple opportunities to put away the Islanders last night but, just as we've seen many times this year, they let them hang around and tie the game multiple times and took home only one out of two points in the standings.

Aside from that, Carolina had a strong overall effort against the Isles but penalties and defensive lapses got them into trouble and that is why they are now sitting alone at the bottom of the Eastern Conference.

More details after the jump

At the end of November, I came up with a narrative called "The March Towards .500" where the Hurricanes corsi, fenwick and scoring chance rates were slowly improving and that there was a realistic chance of the Canes getting over 50% in both of those categories even if the team wasn't winning. Well, the team was ".500" with a 5-5-2 record in the month of December but their scoring chance percentages actually regressed. It wasn't anything extreme (Scoring chances are sitting at 47.3% at even strength right now) there wasn't much progress being shown from the end of November. However, the shot charts that Gabe Desjardins cooked up show that the team's underlying numbers are slightly better compared to what they were under Paul Maurice. They are still a long ways away from reaching that .500 mark.

With that in mind, let's take a look at the individual scoring chances after three months. We'll be looking at both raw data and scoring chance numbers adjusted for zone starts. We will do that starting after the jump

Carolina's last game of 2011 was strikingly similar to their last game of the 2010-11 season as they gave up four unanswered goals to the Tampa Bay Lightning and took home a 5-2 loss. This game felt a lot more lopsided than the underlying numbers indicate but that's probably just a hangover from the three goals they gave up in the third period and the awful defensive play exhibited during then. Keep in mind that Carolina was only outshot 26-23 at even strength, had a 2-1 lead during the second period and looked pretty good for most of that time. Then Chad LaRose took a penalty late in the second period which carried over into the next frame and Carolina was Stamkos'd* shortly after. The inevitable third period meltdown, similar to what happened in the season opener, followed. Definitely a horrible sight to witness because it's never fun to blow a lead and it's even less fun to give up a hat trick but I don't think this was a terribly played game by the Hurricanes. It was just a horrible stretch of play in the third period along with some bad decisions that ended up sinking the team. Again.

We'll explore the ups and downs of this game after the jump

*Stamkos'd is my new word for a goal that comes off a slapshot from inside the face-off circle. It's happened to us and so many other teams that I figured it should get its own phrase.

I'm a little late due to complications with Game Center Live and a few other things, but I figured it was better to get the scoring chances from this game posted at some point. There won't be much analysis because I'm sure most of you have seen the game and know what happened by now. I will say that this was a great overall game from the Hurricanes. Despite giving up two goals in the third period, they looked strong for the entire sixty minutes and dominated this contest at even strength by out-chancing the Devils there 15-9. They did get a bit of an advantage thanks to three powerplays and the Devils playing with a shortened benched, but it was one of the better games the Canes played all season. Feel like I've been saying that a lot ever since Kirk Muller took over.

Scoring chances & more after the jump.